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Quotes from some favorite books and poems...

You have to take risks. We will only understand the miracle of life fully
when we allow the unexpected to happen.

Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks, The Essential Rumi:

No better love than love with no object,
no more satisfying work than work with no purpose.

T. S. Eliot, The Cocktail Party:

To approach the stranger is to invite the unexpected, release a new force,
let the genie out of the bottle. It is to start a new train of events that
is beyond your control....You will change your mind, but you are not free…
You made a decision. You set in motion forces in your life and in the lives
of others.

Reshad Feild, The Last Barrier:

Serving God - what more beautiful thing is there to do! The only real joy
is to be a servant of God, and that means being awake all the time to the
needs of the moment…. We cannot have any preconceived ideas of what service
means. We never know from one moment to the next, what will be asked of us.

Stephen and Ondrea Levine, Embracing the Beloved:

The only service you can do for anyone is to remind them of their true
nature.

Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept:

Everyday, God gives us the sun - and also one moment in which we have the
ability to change everything...

Reshad Feild, The Last Barrier:

Devotion to God is studying him in every aspect; serving God is teaching
what you know of Him to others.

Paulo Coelho, The Valkyries:

The only reasons for action...

For Love,
For Victory,
For the glory of God.

Stephen and Ondrea Levine, Embracing the Beloved:

Buddha said, "It doesn't matter how long you forget, only how soon you
remember!"

T. S. Eliot, The Cocktail Party:

…we die to each other daily. What we know of other people is only our
memory of the moments during which we knew them. And they have changed since
then.

Mevlana Jalalu'ddin Rumi,translated
by R.A. Nicholson

The secret of my song, though near,
None can see and none can hear.
Oh, for a friend to know the sign
And mingle all his soul with mine.

Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept:

Miracles occur all around us, signs from God show us the way, angels plead
to be heard, but we pay little attention to them...

A.H. Almaas, Essence:

…directing the process by the mind can only lead to difficulty, for the
mind does not know. Commitment to the Truth is sufficient for the process to
unfold.

Deepak Chopra, Return of Merlin:

There are no accidents... there is only some purpose that we haven't yet
understood.

A.H. Almaas, Essence:

... it is not a matter of discovering new aspects of essence. It is a
matter of letting go of the ego identity and living from the essence that is
already present

Mabel Collins, Light on the Path:

Kill out all sense of separateness. Do not fancy you can stand aside from
the bad man or the foolish man. They are yourself, though in a less degree
than your friend or your master. But if you allow the idea of separateness
from any evil thing or person to grow up within you, by doing so you create
karma which will bind you to that thing or person till your soul recognizes
that it cannot be isolated. Remember that the sin and the shame of the world
are your sin shame; for you are part of it; your karma is inextricably
interwoven with the great karma. And before you can attain knowledge you
must have passed though all places, foul and clean alike. Therefore,
remember that the soiled garment you shrink from touching may have been
yours yesterday, may be yours tomorrow. And if you turn with horror from it,
when it is flung upon your shoulders, it will cling more closely to you. The
self righteous man makes for himself a bed of mire. Abstain because it is
right to abstain - not that you yourself shall be kept clean.

Mevlana Jalalu'ddin Rumi:

The nation of Love differs from all others,
Lovers bear allegiance to no nation or sect.

Paulo Coelho, The Valkyries:

Have courage... Open your heart, and listen to what your dreams tell you.
Follow those dreams, because only a person who is not ashamed can manifest
the glory of God.

Crow Dog:

"The Great Spirit of the wasichu gave the white folks the Bible and the
dictionary, because they always forget…"

Deepak Chopra, Return of Merlin:

(Humans... as viewed by the crows:) Puffballs of vanity when they're not
being absurdly violent; wretchedly unhappy in their mental prisons and too
stubborn to open the door and escape.

Stephen and Ondrea Levine, Embracing the Beloved:

When we see all women as the divine mother and all men as the divine
father, everyone you meet is sacred.

Reshad Feild, The Last Barrier:

There is nothing to achieve, there is only surrender to a life of service.

Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept:

Follow your dreams, transform your life, take the path that leads to God.
Perform your miracles. Cure. Make prophecies. Listen to your guardian angel.
Transform yourself. Be a warrior, and be happy as you wage the good fight.
Take risks.

Reshad Feild, The Last Barrier:

As your act of dedication in this world you must finally surrender your own
life to a life of service.

Mevlana Jalalu'ddin Rumi (1207 - 1273 a.d.):

I am a bird of the heavenly garden
I belong not to the earthly sphere.
They have made for two or three days
A cage of my body.

Mabel Collins, Light on the Path:

Learn to look intelligently into the hearts of men. From an absolutely
impersonal point of view, otherwise your sight is colored. Therefore
impartiality must be understood.

Intelligence is impartial; no man is your enemy, no man is your friend. All
alike are your teachers. Your enemy becomes a mystery that must be solved
even though it takes ages; for man must be understood. Your friend becomes a
part of yourself, an extension of yourself, a riddle hard to read. Only one
thing is more difficult to know - your own heart. Not until the bonds of
personality be loosed can that profound mystery of self begin to be seen.
Not till you stand aside from it, will it in any way reveal itself to your
understanding. Then, and not until then, can you use all its powers, and
devote them to a worthy service.

Mevlana Jalalu'ddin Rumi:

Enough of these phrases,
Conceit and metaphors,
I want burning, burning, burning.

Paulo Coelho, The Valkyries:

Have courage, be capable of loving.... Be happy in love. Be joyful in
victory. Follow the dictates of your heart.

Reshad Feild, The Last Barrier:

It is our own arrogance and pride that cause pain. The more that we think
that we can do anything, the less we realize our complete dependence on God,
and the worse the pain becomes.

A Muslim Call to Prayer:

God is great,
I bear witness that there is no god but God.
I bear witness that Muhammad is His prophet.
Come to prayer,
Come to success.
God is great,
There is no god but God.
La illaha illa'llah.

Rabia of Bashra, as she told of her journey to Mecca:

I see only bricks and a house of stone;
What do they profit me?
'Tis Thou that I want.

Deepak Chopra, Return of Merlin:

... reality stands before them, yet they don't see it, because what you
call real is just the mirror image of your expectations.

Mevlana Jalalu'ddin Rumi:

Appear as you are,
Be as you appear.

T. S. Eliot, East Coker:

…trying to learn to use words, and every attempt is a wholly new start and
a different kind of failure because one has only learnt to get the better of
words for the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which one is no
longer disposed to say it. And so each venture is a new beginning, a raid on
the inarticulate… And what there is to conquer… has already been discovered
once or twice, or several times… for us there is only the trying. The rest
is not our business.

Mahmud Shabistari, Rose Garden of Mystery (13th
century):

Go sweep out the chamber of your heart.
Make it ready to be the dwelling place of the Beloved.
When you depart, He will enter.
In you, void of yourself, will He display His beauties.

Stephen and Ondrea Levine, Embracing the Beloved:

Acting from the appropriateness of the heart, we are freed from the
neediness of the mind.

Deepak Chopra, Return of Merlin:

A man's goodness is truly measured by what he is, not what he does.

Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept:

Love perseveres. It's men who change.

Deepak Chopra, Return of Merlin:

For some, healing is too much to bear, and they hand it back, exchanging it
for the fear they are accustomed to.

Paulo Coelho, The Valkyries:

There is no sin but the lack of love.

Deepak Chopra, Return of Merlin:

Look into the mirror of the world, and you will see only yourself.

Thich Nhat Hanh, The Long Road Turns to Joy:

Take my hand.
We will walk.
We will only walk.
We will enjoy our walk without thinking of arriving anywhere.